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B-School Grads Recruited in Virtual Open House

By Paul McCloskey

03/27/07

Management consultancy Bain & Co. has opened a recruiting center in the Second Life virtual environment. Earlier this month the firm held an open house in Second Life, at which students attended from Harvard Business School, MIT's Sloan School of Business, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and the Kellog School of Management at Northwestern University.

All students who attended the invitation-only career-planning event received summer internship offers in either Bain's Chicago or New York office, Bain said.

"We view this pilot project in Second Life as a way to carefully evaluate the networking opportunity, enhanced access to Bain employees and content, and convenience and cost-savings benefits that the 3D virtual world seems to bring to the recruitment process," said Julie Coffman, head of recruiting for Bain in North America and a Chicago-based partner in Bain's global financial services practice.

Bill Neuenfeldt, head of Bain's global schools recruiting program also touted the development. "The three-dimensional Internet clearly presents great potential," he said. "But the true test of success or failure for the virtual world will be whether it can help to create new markets or, in this specific case, to advance a key business process such as talent recruiting."